Vance Stubbs

Vance Stubbs was a General of the Astra Militarum and the senior Imperial General Staff officer placed in overall command of the Imperial Guard forces stationed in the Kaurava System. Stubbs had barely arrived at his new posting when an unexpected Warp Storm opened on Kaurava IV, wiping out the 253rd Kauravan Regiment, while sudden attacks from Alpha LegionChaos Space Marines caught much of the 252nd Kauravan Regiment unprepared, decimating it. This left General Stubbs with barely a quarter of the Imperial Guard troops originally stationed in the star system under his effective command.

Hoping to reclaim the Kaurava System for the Imperium, General Stubbs opened a campaign to reclaim the system from the myriad enemies of the Imperium assaulting it with the 252nd Kauravan Conservator Regiment; but the situation spiralled out of control upon the arrival of the Blood RavensSpace Marines and the Sisters of Battle of the Order of the Sacred Rose. The Blood Ravens had arrived in force to investigate a potential lead to the creation of their enigmatic Chapter, landing with five full companies of Astartes under the command of Force Commander Indrick Boreale, who wanted no witnesses. The Order of the Sacred Rose suspected the Imperial Guard present in the system to have been corrupted by the Warp Storm from the very start or even to have been responsible for summoning it. General Stubbs' stubborn refusal to bow down or submit to Inquisitorial reconditioning quickly escalated the situation into open conflict with his theoretical allies from the Imperium as well as the various xenos and Chaos forces seeking to take control of the Kaurava System for their own purposes.

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The outcome of the Kaurava Conflict depends on which faction wins the game Dawn of War - Soulstorm. If the Imperial Guard is defeated in their stronghold at Dussala Precinct on Kaurava I, Stubbs escaped on a Valkyrie as his bodyguards were being cut down covering his retreat, remarking that, "Though my army lies in ruins today, I have not yet done fighting, and I will remember who my enemies are."

If the Blood Ravens Chapter is the victor, any surviving Imperial Guardsmen are treated as comrades-in-arms and given safe return to Segmentum Command, where only a few were likely to survive the inevitable debrief to be carried out by the agents of the Inquisition's Ordo Hereticus. The factories and munitions are then used by the Blood Ravens, who proceed to successfully reclaim the system and the relics of their own past that it holds. However, the events of Dawn of War II reveal that this ending is non-canonical and that in fact the Blood Ravens suffered heavy losses, were driven from the system and their commander, Indrick Boreale, was slain.

If the Imperial Guard is victorious over all the other factions, General Stubbs and his men are declared heroes by the people of the Kaurava System and Stubbs is named the Governor-General of Kaurava. The star system begins to thrive again thanks to the immense reconstruction, mining and terraforming projects initiated by the Imperium. The large number of military academies established in the system as a result of its martial reputation proceed to train superior Imperial Guardsmen of the Kauravan Conservator Regiments who are second in quality only to the Kasrkin of Cadia. Only Kaurava III was left largely barren in this outcome, due to having been a former NecronTomb World. General Stubbs' ability to organise and reform the long neglected Kauravan regiments of the Imperial Guard did not go unnoticed by Segmentum Command, and Stubbs was assured that his rise in the Imperial hierarchy would not stop with the Planetary Governorship of a relatively small, backwards Imperial world.

Unfortunately, Gorgutz 'Ead Hunter and his Ork clans were the ultimate victors in the Kaurava System, forcing General Stubbs and the Astra Militarum forces under his command to withdraw from the system.

During the Kaurava Conflict, General Stubbs was known to have been outfitted with the following weapons and wargear:

Lightning Claws - Stubbs wields a pair of Lightning Claws for close quarters melee combat. These weapons were later upgraded to a pair of master-crafted Lightning Claws that were even more effective at slaying the foes of the Emperor.

Wrist-Mounted Bolter - Stubbs made use of a custom-designed wrist-mounted Bolter sized for the use of a normal human as his primary ranged weapon. This was later upgraded to a Storm Bolter that was also sized to fit on a normal human arm.

Plasma Pistol - Later in the Kaurava Conflict, Stubbs acquired a Plasma Pistol to use alongside his Storm Bolter.

Laspistol - Stubbs possessed an ornate and finely made antique Laspistol strapped in a holster on his left hip, but he only used this weapon when he wished to unleash a killing headshot against an already defeated enemy.

Carapace Armour - Stubbs wore a suit of Imperial Carapace Armour for added protection. This armour was outfitted with a number of devices such as an optical targeting array intended to enhance Stubbs' ranged weapon accuracy in combat.

Imperial Honours - Stubbs had been awared several of the Imperial Guard's highest honours, including the Macharian Cross and Ibram's Vestment, which entitled him to maintain elite Cadian Kasrkin as a personal honour guard amongst the troops of his command squad.